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To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It’s where he was born and where he and his Ma eat and play and learn. At night, Ma puts him safely to sleep in the wardrobe, in caseOld Nick comes.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it’s the prison where Old Nick has kept her for seven years, since she was nineteen. Through ingenuity and determination, Ma has created a life for herself and her son, but she knows it’s not enough for either ofthem. Jack’s curiosity is building alongside Ma’s desperation -- and Room can’t contain either of them for much longer...

Told entirely in the inventive, often funny voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of the resilient bond between parent and child, and a brilliantly executed novel about a journey from one world to another.

Product description

Quill & Quire

Emma Donoghue steps outside of her comfort zone with Room, her new novel. The Irish-born novelist, who now makes her home in London, Ontario, is known primarily for her richly detailed historical fiction (such as 2000’s Slammerkin) and stories exploring lesbian relationships. Her latest effort is quite a departure, and it seems to be working: the book garnered a spot on the Man Booker Prize shortlist.

The plot bears resemblance to the horrific true events surrounding Austrian Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter imprisoned in a soundproof bunker in his basement for 24 years, fathering seven children by her. Rather than having the imprisoned woman tell her story, Donoghue places the narrative in the hands of a child born into a 12’ x 12’ room, the only home he’s ever known.

As a narrator, five-year-old Jack is tremendously enticing. His mother, kidnapped seven years earlier while walking through her college campus at age 19, has created a world for her son that is rich in play and learning, all the while anticipating the day they might make their “great escape.” This environment has provided Jack with an impressive vocabulary, though his advanced learning is juxtaposed with the natural innocence and bewilderment of a small child. The result is a story told through a child’s eyes, but in language that is endearing rather than tiresome.

The pace and plot of the story are both pitch perfect, though after the climax midway through the book, the reader may wonder what could be left to say. A great deal, it turns out, as Jack faces a whole new world of unfamiliarity and fear. Earnest and bright, he is remarkably adaptable, and provides commentary that is lushly intricate.

The character of Ma, while not the main voice, is nevertheless whole. Donoghue employs Jack’s descriptions of her moods, conversations, and thoughts to paint a picture of a woman struggling to keep it together for the sake of her child, while also fighting to become the person she once was and might be again, if circumstances allow.

Room is disturbing, thrilling, and emotionally compelling. Emma Donoghue has produced a novel that is sure to stay in the minds of readers for years to come.

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What an incredible book. Now I see what all the hullabaloo has been all about. This books is written from the point of view of a five year old boy who only knows life lived in one room. He knows nothing of the outside. How the author winnowed out such an authentic sounding and feeling book, I'll never know. I found myself dumbstruck time and time again as I read Jack's words. The author made me remember how it felt to be a child, not understanding the baffling world of adults around me. Be warned though, this book can be depressing. I found the morning after beginning this book, looking at the world a little differently and listening to the conversations around me with a new ear. It disturbed me a little to find out just how much effect only the first 25% of this book had on me. What, I wondered, would happen as I continued? Well, yes, it was depressing but also illuminating. I can really say no more without giving away the miraculousness of the reading experience gained in this book. DOn't miss it, it's worth the low mood as you read. I think of this book much like I do the movie "Schlindler's List", it was worth the hurt to get to the end. Yes it ached to watch but oh my, the learning it instilled was well worth it.

Wow, this was hard-hitting and unbelievably sad.Five year old Jack has lived his whole life in one room. His mother (having been kidnapped) was forced to raise Jack in horrific, cramped conditions and led him to believe in a warped sense of reality in which Room is the entire world.

As this will be a no spoiler review, I'll keep it short and sweet:Told through the point of view of Jack, we see everything through the eyes of a five year old child who doesn’t understand societal norms, and doesn’t quite understand what is real and what is not. To be perfectly honest, while Jack is understandably confused and doesn’t have a firm grasp on the world, at times I found his ignorance to be annoying as a narrator. His reactions to everything was of course justified in his eyes, but they still made me unbelievably frustrated at times. And on that note, I have to give the author credit because if I was getting frustrated, you know for a fact that Joy, Jack’s mother, was a million times more frustrated with their situation. This book gave me an unbelievable amount of empathy and sorrow for people who are forced to live in conditions like these. It's easy to forget but this actually happens to people. And it's scary as hell.

As always, I feel the book is better than the movie, and if you haven't seen it yet - read this first! Both are great, but the book is very immersive. The style at first is difficult to get into given that it is unconventional, but all of these little details add to the authenticity of the experience while reading. Definitely worth a try. Lots of emotions!

This book is so well written. It is unusual from the beginning as it is written from a little boy's perspective but you get used to it very quickly. It is a hard story to read because it is so believable and therefore so disturbing.I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read. It reads like a true story but an awful story. You also see the results of the boy and his mother escaping and trying to recover from the life they left behind. All around, this is an excellent story!

I bought this thinking it would be more compelling than it ended up being. It was okay but really, not what I was hoping it would be. I've read, in fascinated horror, about similar real life cases over the years but this book wasn't as fascinating. I also didn't like reading from the little boy's perspective and found it slow to read due to his method of a speech.

When I first read the synopsis about Room - I was skeptical to say the least.

How could a novel written from a five year old's point of view get such high reviews.

My only regret with this book - is that it took me so long to read it!

5-year-old Jack is a great protaganist. This is one of those books where I laughed and cried at the same time. A great peice of literature!

I will admit it took around 15-20 pages to get used to Jack's train of thought. Emma Donoghue does a great job at making this characters voice sound like a typical five year old.

The story starts out light and fun. As it progresses the darkness of the reality of Jack and Ma's situation is revialed.

I am a slow reader. So when I say I read this book in three nights. It means this is a true page turner. I love this book.

UPDATE:

SO I am now finished this book. The writing held my attention until the very last page. Definitally a five star book. One that everyone should read. Full of twists and turns. Jack truly steals your heart.

I was sure that I was going to not like the book once I found out what the story was about but that was not the case. It totally intrigued me and I was totally caught up in the story. Every bit of it was believable and although you would hate to have anything like this happen in as far as the kidnapping goes....it would make sense to do what the girl in the story did . Good story Emma!

Mehhh - really really too long, dull and difficult to get through - not because of the subject matter but because it was written in a manner that grates on and eventually loses the reader. I skipped over very large parts of this story and was really sorry I bothered to even start the book. Can not believe the awards won by this or that anyone went to the trouble of making a movie based on this book.